I'm looking to upgrade my current version of Apache, PHP and mySQL. I remember when I installed them it was a very intricate and somewhat delicate process and I am sort of afraid to upgrade in case everything just stops working!

Currently I am running Apache 2.2.21 and PHP 5.3.5. MySQL is 5.6.4

Does anyone have any ideas how you upgrade these things? I think the current versions are Apache 2.4.3, PHP 5.4.7 and MySQL 5.6.

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3 Answers
3

I have head or WAMP but I decided to not install that initially because I was told you have a lot more freedom when it comes to adjusting settings and developing on your machine when you install each component separately. Is that true? Or should I just uninstall what I have and download the latest WAMP version?
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JavacadabraOct 15 '12 at 18:29

no you must try with WAMP, then slowly adopt in managing apache,php and mysql module separately, if you start to configure each of them separately, it would cause confusion
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zlipprOct 15 '12 at 18:31

Ok thank you, actually having just looked at their website WAMP seems ideal I don't know what I was thinking beforehand.
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JavacadabraOct 15 '12 at 18:32

The three are coupled pretty loosely, so I think it should be a straightforward process.

The biggest worries for me would be the reliance of any web application on a specific version of Apache and PHP, and Apache configuration files. Since your Apache upgrade is significant (from 2.2 to 2.4), config files will change.

I suggest upgrading Apache in a sandbox and fine-tuning your configuration files. Once you have working configuration files, upgrade the real thing and copy your config files over.

If you're more concerned with non-breakage than having the latest, you can use the current stable releases of the branches you're already on.
For example, Apache 2.2 is still supported, the current release is 2.2.23
You can compile it with the same configure command as your previous install if you have the previous installation folder, just look for config.nice
Same with PHP - you can go to the current stable release of PHP 5.3 if you don't have need to go to the latest (5.4), and compile with your config.nice from prior PHP install folder.
There are also ways you can back up your current configuration. But if you have the prior install folders, reverting is just a cd & make install away.